Bob Newhart

When one examines the various sitcoms that have appeared on the TV landscape over the history of the medium, there’s no shortage of stars who found their first taste of fame as stand-up comedians, but there’s really only one who’s managed to take a stammer and turn it into a career that’s been going strong for 54 years now.

If you lived through the ‘60s, then your first awareness of Bob Newhart almost certainly came via his comedy albums, but if you came up during the ‘70s or any decade thereafter, then you may only know him from his sitcoms. Be it The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart, Bob, or even the oft-forgotten George & Leo, Newhart spent the better part of a 25-year period as a constant figure on prime-time television, and although he’s not had his own series since George & Leo wrapped in 1998, he’s never really been away, having turned up on ER, Desperate Housewives, NCIS, TNT’s The Librarian movies, and – lest we forget – won the first Emmy of his career for one of his three appearances on The Big Bang Theory. But while TV has kept Newhart in the public eye, there are far too many folks who are kinda sorta aware that he’s a stand-up comedian without ever having actually heard him do stand-up.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, former Warner Bros. Records executive and industry insider
Stan Cornyn ruminates on the past, present, and future of the music business.

Earlier this week we explored the history of liner notes and dipped
into some excerpts published by Warner/Reprise throughout the late 60s.
You can check out that article here. Today, we pick up where we left
off, right in the middle of the Rat Pack's Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.

Frank Sinatra

1966 - Frank Sinatra, Strangers in the Night

Back in New York, where he started, where twenty thousand bobby soxers
since pressed themselves against the doors of The Paramount Theatre to
see him, things are different. The brilliant bronze doors are
green with neglect. On one side wall, the chalk legend: “The
Animals Are Loved Only by Girls Named Josephine.”